by Robert J. Kirkpatrick
THE NAME of T. Paine will be familiar to students of the penny blood for the handful of serials he published in 1840-41 from his premises at 20 Holywell Street, Strand. But he has hitherto been forgotten and overlooked, probably because his career as a publisher was so short. So who, exactly, was he?
He was born Thomas Paine Carlile, the fourth son of Richard Carlile, the radical publisher and champion of the philosopher and political theorist Thomas Paine (1737-1809), author of Rights of Man (1791) and The Age of Reason (1794-1807).
He was born Thomas Paine Carlile, the fourth son of Richard Carlile, the radical publisher and champion of the philosopher and political theorist Thomas Paine (1737-1809), author of Rights of Man (1791) and The Age of Reason (1794-1807).
In 1817, fired by political zeal, Richard Carlile became a seller of pamphlets and journals, and later a writer and publisher, focussing on radical and other causes — which led to several terms of imprisonment. He went into partnership with the printer William Sherwin and together they published Sherwin’s Political Register. In February 1819 he established himself as a bookseller and publisher at 55 Fleet Street, but a few months after this found himself beginning a six year prison sentence in Dorchester Prison (originally three years, but extended to six following his refusal to pay a fine of £1,500) for seditious libel, for selling Thomas Paine’s works and for having published his own account of the Peterloo Massacre (in which 15 people were killed when soldiers attacked a crowd of people demanding the reform of parliamentary representation in Manchester on 16 August 1819) in his Political Register. When his shop was raided and his stock of newspapers and pamphlets (which included works by Thomas Paine) seized by the authorities, he re-launched his periodical as The Republican, only to be arrested after the first number had been issued.
During his incarceration his business was carried on by his wife, and he continued issuing new periodicals, most notable The Newgate Monthly Magazine, launched on 1 September 1824 and produced by some of Carlile’s shopmen who had also been imprisoned. After his release in 1825 he opened new premises at 62 Fleet Street, and turned his attention to birth control, and rethinking his earlier anti-religion philosophy, thereby damaging his reputation. In 1827 he embarked on what became a lengthy series of lectures, and in 1831 he was sentenced to another term in prison for seditious libel, published in his short-lived periodical The Prompster, during which he formed a relationship with Eliza Sharples, an advocate of women’s rights — he and his wife Jane subsequently separated, Jane setting up in business as a bookseller on her own, and in April 1833 Carlile and Sharples had their first child, Julian, born out of wedlock and thereby damaging Carlile’s reputation even further. Several more short-lived periodicals followed, including The Political Soldier, The London Star, Phoenix, The Church and Carlile’s Political Register, none of which lasted for more than a handful of issues. At the time of the 1841 census, he was living in Old Road, Enfield, with Eliza and their children Richard, Hypatia (b.1836), and Theophila (b.1837). He continued to lecture, but financially he was insecure, and he even became estranged from Eliza, who moved to Devon with their children in 1842.
In January 1843 he moved from Enfield to an address in Bouverie Street, Fleet street (probably No 1, the home of his son Alfred), and launched The Christian Warrior, a weekly periodical which reflected his atheism, a position he had slowly come to adopt over the previous ten or so years. He only saw three numbers off the press, however, as he died on 10 February 1843. His death received a lot of publicity, with some newspapers describing him as “an extraordinary man” and others as “a notorious infidel”. He had bequeathed his body to St. Thomas’s Hospital, where it was subsequently taken and used for an anatomy lecture before being dissected by students.
FUNERAL SERVICE. His funeral took place on 26 February 1843, and this, too, attracted a lot of publicity, albeit for an unusual reason. After a delay of an hour, the cortege, consisting of a hearse and five coaches, left Bouverie Street and made its way to Kensal Green Cemetery, in Willesden, arriving at just before five o’clock after a two-hour journey. When the Rev. Josiah Twigger was about to start reading the burial service, Alfred Carlile stepped forward and on behalf of the family objected: “Sir, we protest against the performance of this ceremony. Our late father lived and died in opposition to priestcraft of every description, and we, therefore, protest in his name against the service being read” (as reported in several local newspapers). The clergyman insisted that he had to carry out his duty, and after Richard Carlile jnr. pointed out that the grave had been bought for the family and they did not want the funeral service to be read, Thomas Paine Carlile urged everyone to leave, which they did, leaving the Rev. Twigger to conduct the service in front of the sexton and two other people.
“It cannot be said that any of these sons followed in their father’s footsteps. Though they were associated with him, by turns, in the practical part of the publishing business, they seemed not to have inherited either their mother’s thrift or their father’s talents, and were the source of much uneasiness to him … Carlile set them up in business several times, but always with unpleasant results; the unpopularity of the name Carlile at that time may have had much to do with their non-success, but not all.” — from The Battle of the Press as told in the story of the life of Richard Carlile, by Theophila Carlile Campbell, London: A. & H.B. Bonner, 1899, pp.18-19
In 1836, operating out of 137 Fleet Street, he began issuing a threehalfpenny weekly Library of Romance, or Journal of Fiction, which comprised pirated works by authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Mrs S.C. Hall, Leigh Hunt and G.P.R. James. It was later reprinted, or continued, by Orlando Hodgson of 111 Fleet Street, under a slightly different title.
At the time of the 1841 census Richard Carlile jnr. was living in Belgrave Terrace, Shoreditch, described as a newsagent, with a wife (Maria, born in Ireland around 1816) and three children. In 1842 he was listed in the Post Office Directory as a newsagent at 2 Water Lane, Fleet Street (presumably with his mother — his younger brother Alfred had also been living and working from there, although he appears to have given up his business), and a year later at 2 Paul’s Court, Huggin Lane (in the City of London), again as a newsagent. According to Theophila Carlile, he inherited his father’s business and stock of books on his father’s death, alongside a small annuity, while Eliza Sharples inherited only his furniture and personal possessions. He emigrated to America after a while, and settled in Winsconsin, where he was elected to state’s House of Assembly. He died in New York in 1855 of “ship fever” (i.e. epidemic typhus) which he had contracted during his return to America after making a trip to London, leaving a widow and nine children.
HIS SON ALFRED. His second son, Alfred Carlile was born on 26 February 1816, and baptised a month later in the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, at the same time as his elder brother Richard. He became a publisher, printer and wholesale newsagent, seemingly beginning in business at 183 Fleet Street in 1836, from where he published An Introduction to the Science of the Modern Mysteries of Masonry, Christianity and Judaism, copied for non-Masonic readers, written by his father. (He went on to publish, and print, a few more of his father’s works.)
In 1837 he moved to 137 Fleet Street, from where he issued The Phoenix, or The Christian Advocate of Equal Knowledge, a short-lived periodical which ran from 5 February to 5 March 1837, and Mirabaud’s System of Nature. In 1838 he moved to 2 Water Lane, Fleet Street, from where he published a reissue of his father’s Every Woman’s Book, or What is Love?, an early tract on birth control. He also issued the short-lived Carlile’s Political Register, which ran from 19 October to 14 December 1839.
Also in or around 1839, from 1 Water Lane, he issued, in partnership with his brother Thomas Paine Carlile, who was working in Manchester, A Dictionary of Some of the Names in the Sacred Scriptures Translated into the English Language, written by Richard Carlile and based on writings by Eliza Sharples. He also advertised as a newspaper agent supplying bulk copies of all London periodicals and newspapers at a much lower price than his competitors, charging a commission of just 5% on top of the actual wholesale price. He was still at 2 Water Lane at the time of the 1841 census, living with his mother.
At some point he became the proprietor of City Hall, 110 Chancery Lane, which was used for lectures and public meetings, but in May 1842, having given up his publishing business, he found himself in a debtors’ prison (London Gazette, 27 May 1842). After appearing in the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in July, he was discharged from his bankruptcy on 15 August 1842.
SOMETHING STRANGE. Rather strangely, the day after The Times had reported his trial at the Old Bailey (16 September 1845), a letter was published in the same newspaper:
“Sir, Will you allow me to correct an error in your report of the proceedings at the Central Criminal Court, which appeared in Tuesday’s paper, and in which one Alfred Carlile, a son of the late Richard Carlile, is said to have appeared on a charge of misdemeanour? I being the only Alfred Carlile in the family of the late Richard Carlile, shall be subjected to much inconvenience and annoyance if the report referred to is not contradicted.The explanation for this lies in the activities of Richard Carlile’s third son.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, ALFRED CARLILE
Prince’s-street, Leicester-Square, late of the Haymarket.”
In late October 1840 Thomas moved to 20 Holywell Street, Strand, from where he issued a handful of other penny-part serials, including William Tell, the Hero of Switzerland; The Black Forest, or The Solitary of the Hut: A Legend of Hornby Castle; and Love and Crime, or The Mystery of the Convent. Other works issued by Thomas from Holywell Street include Paine’s Handbook to the Ball-room; The Keepsake, or Friendship’s Offering (another very short-lived weekly), and a series of lithographed plates, threepence plain and sixpence coloured, of The Drunkard’s Progress.
He appears to have stopped advertising in early July 1841, and certainly nothing else bearing his imprint appears to have been published after 1841. At the time of the 1841 census he was recorded, as Thomas Carlile, at Holywell Street, described as a bookseller and living with his wife and first son. They had a second child, Charlotte Jane, born in September 1841.
[4] The Sacred Scriptures, ca. 1839. |
“Thomas Paine Carlile, also known and sued by the name of Thomas Ward, and also known as Thomas Paine, of No. 103, Strand, in the county of Middlesex, Bookseller, and occupying lodgings at No. 3, Fountain Court, Strand…”
It therefore appears that it was Thomas Paine Carlile who was selling indecent prints from his shop in the Strand, and that he gave the police and the court the name of his brother. He was later listed in the 1847 Post Office Directory as “Thomas Ward, Importer of French Prints”, at 103 Strand, but whether or not he was still in business is open to doubt. It was, presumably, Thomas who was taken to Newgate and subsequently spent six months in prison, and not Alfred.
NO TRACE. There is no trace of Thomas, Charlotte or their children in the 1851 census, although in the same year a Thomas Ward & Co., booksellers and publishers, was listed in the Post Office Directory at 27 Paternoster Row. Charlotte died in September 1852, and Thomas married for a second time on 14 January 1854, at All Hallows Church, Tottenham. His wife was Fanny Wright, born in 1835 and the daughter of William Wright, a licensed victualler from Tottenham. They went on to have three children: Fanny (b.1857 in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury), Thomas (b.1858 in Lambeth), and Charles Alfred (b.1859 in Camberwell).
NO TRACE. There is no trace of Thomas, Charlotte or their children in the 1851 census, although in the same year a Thomas Ward & Co., booksellers and publishers, was listed in the Post Office Directory at 27 Paternoster Row. Charlotte died in September 1852, and Thomas married for a second time on 14 January 1854, at All Hallows Church, Tottenham. His wife was Fanny Wright, born in 1835 and the daughter of William Wright, a licensed victualler from Tottenham. They went on to have three children: Fanny (b.1857 in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury), Thomas (b.1858 in Lambeth), and Charles Alfred (b.1859 in Camberwell).
“THOMAS PAYNE”. At the time of his second marriage, Thomas was described as an Agent — in the 1861 census, he was living in Southwark as Thomas Payne (differently spelled), and described as an accountant’s clerk, with Fanny and his son Charles. His other two children were living with his wife’s father in Camberwell.
In 1871 he was still living as Thomas Payne, at 43 Primrose Hill, St. Bride’s, working as an Agent to a Joint Stock Company. He died in London in October 1878, apparently intestate. His wife died in Islington in 1908.
In 1871 he was still living as Thomas Payne, at 43 Primrose Hill, St. Bride’s, working as an Agent to a Joint Stock Company. He died in London in October 1878, apparently intestate. His wife died in Islington in 1908.
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